Homeless plan study set for January 2012

The Old Fort Homeless Coalition has secured $16,000 in grant funds and $4,000 from three area banks to develop a “strategic action plan” that could include the creation of a homeless campus near South 4th and E Streets in Fort Smith.

The OFHC was tasked by the Fort Smith Board of Directors to push recommendations of a Homelessness Task Force that were prioritized during a May 2010 meeting.

Adding a full-time staff person, pursuing a “campus” for homeless and low-income services and creating a homeless identification system were the top priorities of the task force. The task force, created in August 2009 by the city board, reported 14 ideas to address the regional homeless problem. The boldest of the 14 is a plan to create a “campus setting” that would consolidate homeless services and “eliminate travel, duplication of services and better represent the dignity of the homeless persons.” This recommendation also includes funding a new campus and disposing of existing homeless service facilities.

Marshall Sharpe, president of the OFHC, noted in an Oct. 6 packet to Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack that Dr. Robert Marbut Jr., with San Antonio-based Marbut Consulting, has been hired to conduct a needs assessment and needs gap study of Fort Smith’s homeless situation.

Funding Marbut is the $16,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, along with matching funds of $2,000 from First National Bank of Fort Smith, $1,000 from Benefit Bank and $1,000 from First Financial. Sharpe said the funds will allow Marbut to “share his experiences in San Antonio, TX and St. Petersburg/Pinellas County, FL and work with local non-profits and government agencies to find ways to effectively address the needs of the community and homeless persons.

Marbut is expected to first visit Fort Smith Oct. 19-23. He is scheduled to return in mid-December and in January. On Jan. 20, 2012, Marbut will present his final report to the OFHC.

The work by Marbut is to include the following.
• Inventory homeless services in and around Fort Smith.
• Conduct a needs assessment and needs gap analysis of the services and facilities for the homeless.
• Perform a “strategic framing” plan that will include meetings with local governments, church leaders, civic groups, business owners, service agencies and other interested parties.
• Draft and present a strategic action plan.

In his proposal, Marbut says traditional homeless shelters have graduation success rates of between 5% and 9%. He said “transformative communities” using non-traditional methods — more opportunities for the homeless to become self-sufficient — have success rates of between 51% and 84%.

In minutes from a July 19 meeting of the Old Fort Homeless Coalition, it was noted that Dr. Lance Fisher with the Next Step Day Room, and Ken Pyle, director of the Fort Smith Housing Authority, had visited a 1,500 bed homeless campus in San Antonio. The facility includes spaces for child care, dining, detox, a kennel and an intake facility.

A San Antonio group raised $104 million for the large facility, with about half coming from private donations and the remainder from government sources, New Market Tax Credits and other low-income tax credit programs.

Homeless are cycled through programs at the campus designed to help them become self-sufficient.

The minutes of the meeting also reflected testimony from David Kerr and James Reddick that they are seeing more homeless people in downtown Fort Smith.